Ladies and gentlemen, I am exhausted. And I mean that. Really freaking exhausted. I suppose that's what you get for getting up at what is the Alberta equivalent of 4:45 a.m. I mean, yeah, usually I'm up at 5:30, but that's beside the point. Really. After a week of exhausting nights working on rehearsals for the Requiem, and now this... I just about fell asleep in the taxi on the way here to the airport, where I now sit in a cheesily Canadian-Beer-themed bar, using the wireless internet (apparently my free internet from the hotel doesn't expire until tomorrow, and really, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if the signal here in the airport is shite and it literally took about 5 minutes for the post-typing page to pop up).

I have noticed a few things while in my National Capital.

1) Service here is SO much better than out in Alberta. People still have to compete for jobs here. Every single person who has served me, from the folks at the front desk in the hotel, to the waiter at the restaurant on Sunday night to the staff at the Timothy's where I got my coffee this morning to the guy here in the bar (who's kinda cute, but that's best left for when I'm not typing in a place where he can easily see my screen), to the room service delivery ladies... Fantastic, pleasant, cheerful, prompt service. It has been amazing.

2) Ottawa is about as close to Edinburgh or some other major British city as you're going to get in Canada. Everything centres around one main hill area (ie: Parliament Hill). The Byward market area reminds me of nothing so much as a streetcorner in Edinburgh or London. There are certainly enough pubs around. :) There are statues. Monuments. Buildings more than 100 years old. It is fan-freaking-tastic. I can certainly see myself relocating here and not being too horribly disappointed. Yeah, I'd miss people from out west, but... wow. This is awesome.

3) The Musée des Civilizations is still pretty fantastic. I have some photos of various aspects of it that I want to show you - for a museum that's static (ie: not living history) they certainly cover more than I remember (granted, there have probably been significant changes in the last 12-15 years and additions to the museum that I hadn't noticed when I was a kid). I got to go for about 3.5 hours today in between interviews and it was great.

4) I think I was able to sell myself in ways that employers weren't necessarily expecting. Yeah, a history degree might not be practically applicable to the real world, so I harped on my malleability and my transferrable skills. As I said to several of the interviewers, I'm a ball of clay. Feel free to poke and prod me into whatever you need. I have the basic skills to do it and no preconceived notions of how things "should" be.

I am sort of kicking myself for a few things, though.

a) Didn't think to fly in a few days early and take more time to explore and see friends and such. Getting to see H was fantastic, but there are a couple of others I would have visited here if I could.

b) My French doesn't include flirting 101. They don't teach you how to flirt with men in standard French classes. And there were some very cute francophone men at these interviews. And they all have Masters' degrees, so you know they're smart. And by tonight, I was too exhausted to think clearly enough to even TRY to flirt with the cute guy from Québec that I shared a taxi to the airport with.

c) I'm not a more gregarious person. Some of those people could just walk up to anyone and start a conversation, then there's me. None of that capacity here. I think the people in the interviews were surprised when I described myself as shy at first. If people are asking me questions and I'm forced to respond, it's not as difficult as just walking up to some random and saying hi. Ah well.

Ok, I should probably actually eat the food on the table in front of me, and read the news or something productive like that... Photos will follow early next week, hopefully some good ones of the town my grandma lives in and such as well as some Ottawa ones...